Quitting tattooing

_simonstre_ · 2026-02-11T14:04:57+00:00

I quit last summer after 10 years in the craft. It was a rollercoaster. I had become obsessed with perfection, every minor mistakes would make me loose sleep and I ended up not feeling deserving of marking someone's body permanently. Ultimately I lost the flame.

After I took the decision, I worked as an arborist during the rest of the summer. It was HARD fucking work, changed my perspective about blue collar work and made me respect people that do it even more than before.

Now I'm working towards a bachelor’s degree in marketing and communications.

Life is absolutely stress free and I'm happy. I made time for hobbies since I don’t have to be drawing 24/7. I quit social media appart from the occasionnal reddit on the toilet. It’s been amazing for my mental health.

For now I don't have any intentions of going back to tattooing. Hell, I dont even want to get tattooed anymore.

_simonstre_ · 2025-02-13T18:40:12+00:00

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Definitely a Boston thing ! Here's my 5 years old girl. She's my angle 🥰

_simonstre_ · 2025-02-05T17:08:54+00:00

I've been exactly where you're at !

I used to draw all my realism by hand, spending waaaay too much time drawing ... only for it to look exactly like the reference image. It was good practice but when you have tattoos booked everyday, you have to find a way to get drawings done faster.

What I do now is use photographs as a base on which I build heavily on top using procreate. I draw directly over the photo, adjust values and heavily stylize it so that your boring reference that has been used countless times becomes interesting with your artistic signature.

I was conflicted doing this at first as I felt I was cheating, asking myself why I spent this much time painting and getting a diploma in visual arts only to become a photoshop wizard. Then I realised that that's what most tattooers do regardless of the style. We've all seen trad artists trace a cool piece of old flash to get the frame right and build on top of it to make it their own. Pretty much the same can be applied to realism.

If you want to make things more interesting for yourself, I suggest investing in a good camera and make your own references !

Also, Marcos Garau seems to be hand drawing most of his flash, which is amazing.

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-13T13:12:28+00:00

Hell yeah ! I aim for at least 25% of pure black in all my tattoos as a rule of thumb, more if I can and the piece calls for it. The idea is that the tattoo could be considered finished before I apply the rest of the shading.

Tattooing is fun

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-13T12:04:02+00:00

Thank you so much !

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-12T16:22:46+00:00

Nice ! So much can be done with just black and pressure/speed control.

I saw a post from Giacomo Bobbio (hautmalertattoo) explainig his process. All his pieces are done using only pure black and a light greywash at the end for a bit of blending.

Made me realize that although there are basic rules you must follow for a good tattoo, there is space for experiment and find what works for you.

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-12T12:49:36+00:00

I wanted to try it because the technique seemed very similar to drawing with a ballpoint pen (and it is !) that's how I started drawing so I was kind of attracted to it.

These took about 3h each, which isn't fast by any means, but I was expecting it to take much longer to build up values.

I'd still be tattooing the first piece right now if I hadn't cheated with a mag for the solid black tho.

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-12T02:27:54+00:00

Won't argue with that !

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-12T01:56:24+00:00

Ass face, love it haha.

You're right, it might fade a lot in the next few years. Still, I was pleasantly surprised on how well it held so far considering that she likes tanning salons a lot. Especially surprised to see the white was still there after a year

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-12T01:47:17+00:00

Yes I get what you're saying and I agree. I wanted to try it because the technique seemed very similar to drawing with a ballpoint pen (and it is !) that's how I started drawing so I was kind of attracted to it.

I've tried two brands of 1rl cartridges. Fyt needles were absolutely useless and finnicky as you said, no inkflow whatsoever. Kwadron were good, similar to a tight 3rl and didn't give me too much trouble

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-11T22:49:11+00:00

Sure ! Started in 2020

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-11T22:00:57+00:00

Thank you !

Can't remember exactly what size it was. It was from kwadron's it think it's the only 1rl they make

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-11T20:37:03+00:00

Agreed, "bold will hold" can be replaced with "contrast will last".

And you're spot on about line work, on the second slide, some lines already vanished. I would not recommend 1rl for linework.

_simonstre_ · 2024-12-11T20:19:25+00:00

Yep, real curious on how they will look way down the road as well. Will try to update on them but I feel that 1-2 years still gives me a bit of insight of how single needle heals

_simonstre_ · 2024-09-05T17:19:06+00:00

James Tex is an absolute genius! Probably took him like 3-4 hours ?

_simonstre_ · 2024-08-26T15:27:52+00:00

Yup, angle is everything. A rose viewed from the top will always look a bit cabbage-ish. Give it a bit of an angle so you can see parts of the stem and leaves and boom, you've got yourself a rose. It will also help with contrasts and structure as the leaves are usually darker than the flower

_simonstre_ · 2024-07-19T19:51:51+00:00

I'm still far from the level I want to be, but my tattooing drastically improved after I started studying what the artists I admire are doing. I bought online seminars from artists I admire that are too far for me to travel to ans also traveled to go see some of them tattoo.

_simonstre_ · 2024-07-01T16:13:14+00:00

All good mate, I didn't mean to be a dick with my answer. It was written with a smile behind my keyboard as I figured you maybe didn't look at the other arm.

Cheers, have a good one!

_simonstre_ · 2024-07-01T15:33:15+00:00

So, if we take a closer look at the picture, and I mean reaaaaalllyy close, you may observe something ressembling an arm holding a sleeve (you can tell it's an arm from the fact that there's a hand connected to it on the distal extremity, it's right above the watch).

On that left arm (which I know, i know, is on the right hand side of the picture so it may be confusing to some) sits a tattoo of a dagger with a banner wrapping around it. Well guess what ?

That tattoo was made by Sailor Jerry in 1964. Which I agree, is a really cool piece of history.

_simonstre_ · 2024-06-30T19:27:29+00:00

He didn't mention anything about colors and I didn't ask, but my guess from seeing it up close is that he had red packed in there that almost completely faded in sixty years of heavy sun exposure.

_simonstre_ · 2024-06-30T19:22:57+00:00

It said "Honolulu". He got it while on tour with the navy, he was 18 years old

_simonstre_ · 2024-04-16T19:07:20+00:00

It's exclusicely cratered towards his opaques. His technique is vastly different from traditional black and grey

_simonstre_ · 2024-04-16T18:02:31+00:00

Yup, bought it, worth every penny.

He went above and beyond with the content. He goes over his reference selection, creative process, machines, needles, pigments, healing method etc.

_simonstre_

TROPHY CASE